How to Make a Car Last 300k Miles

There are countless methods and suggestions that are promoted as "proven" ways to keep your car or truck running past the 300,000-mile mark. Tune in to see if you agree with some of the ones that Scott and Ben discuss in this episode.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car Stuff from how Stuff Works dot Com. Hi, and
welcome to car Stuff. I'm Scott and I've been We
are joined in the studio today with our super producer
at longtime colleague, uh Matt Madman Frederick about long life

(00:27):
Oh Dorossell. You know that was the energizer we getting. Yeah,
we might be getting into some trademark territory and if
I want to say that or not, but let's see,
we'll probably come up with something by the end. We
always say that and then we forget. All right, this time,
this time, this one is different than all the others. Hey,
I've got a question for you by way of fantastic

(00:49):
segue here, what's the highest mileage you've had on a car? Man?
You know, Uh, this is gonna be a little bit embarrassed.
Usually my cars don't make it too much more than
about two hundred thousand miles. Yeah, yeah, and I don't.
I mean, it's got to be rough driving, It's got
to be you know that. I I guess the ones
that I've always had a lot of fun in, you know,

(01:10):
like the smaller hashbacks and stuff. I I have to
admit I mean I'm pretty rough on them. I treat
them poorly. I try to take good care of them.
I maintain them well, you know with the old changes
and the fluid changes and the new tires and all
that stuff and the breaks and all that. But well
I do. But you know, the thing is like I also,
I just I'm kind of I would say, abusive to them.

(01:31):
But you know the ones that are fun, you know,
sporty cars to drive. I mean you kind of what's
the old saying like ride them rough and put them
away wet does that? It's like that with the cars.
I mean, um, I do my best to maintain them
and keep them going longer than that, but that's about
maximum life. And then I'll be honest, usually I'm kind
of ready to move on. We've talked about this before
with like how long do you keep cars? And people

(01:51):
were outraged, and I only keep them for you know,
maybe four or five, six, seven years. And when we say,
what's high smell that out on your car, you know,
we're we're also taking to mind the calculation one has
to make where let's say you've got a gasket that
blows and you've got to you you could replace it. Sure,

(02:15):
you could get it rebuilt or something, but then you
have to do the math on the age of the car,
the amount of miles already has. See that's what bites
me on most of my cars, is that I get
to a point where, you know, I've driven it for
a long long time, and then the head gasket blows
or something, and the cost to replace that is ridiculous.
Or you know, the timing belt breaks early, you know,

(02:35):
after I've already changed it once, it breaks the second
time earlier than it should have, causing damage. And you know,
things like that happen, and again you have to wait
that that calculation. What's the longest you've ever owned and
not longest. What's the most mileage you've ever put on
a vehicle? Uh, that I personally put on a vehicle,
or the highest mileage of Well, okay, these are all
tricky numbers because I know that when you're younger, you

(02:58):
might purchase the vehicle that already has one hundred thousand
miles on it. So I get that, you know, factored
into it. But what's the the vehicle with the most
numbers on the odometer that you've ever driven in your life?
I got pretty close. I got pretty close to h
three hundred thousand. I got about two hundred sixty thousand
on one that was a Bonneville, which was previously owned

(03:24):
by my grandfather, who drove drove rarely at that time.
That's actually pretty good because considering the the vintage era
that you're talking about, I know, roughly when you're talking about, UM,
that's back when life expectancy of cars was often a
hundred thousand miles and that was about it, UM, and
then you ended up with a new engine or um

(03:46):
you know, traded onto something else that goes to the
junkyard uma if it's if it's the one I'm thinking of,
you're talking about the old big boxy ones, right, the uh,
the great great big Landy I guess they always they
as were, but the older ones. This was, uh, this
was one of the more recent models, like before they

(04:10):
before they quit making Bonneville's entirely so it's a little
newer than that. But still we've talked about that, that
vehicle that I owned two in the past. We've talked
about those vehicles on previous episodes. They're nice inside, they're huge,
they're like rolling studio apartments, you know. Um, but they're

(04:32):
not a at that time, they're they're just not they're
not high performance vehicles right. Uh, they're also not necessarily
the super high endurance. I was just very careful with
it and I didn't do a lot of interstate traveling

(04:53):
on it, which I think. I think some of that
is key to your driving habits, and that brings us
to the holy grail for a lot of car owners, right,
the platinum standard is whether you can get your vehicle
to three hundred thousand miles or more. We talked briefly

(05:13):
before about the guy who has the highest uh, the
highest mileage on any car ever. Right, was it a
Volvo or a Volkswagen. I think it's a Volvo and
the guys still pilot on the miles right or did
he or did he turn it into a museum. I
can't remember which which occurred. But it was above a
million something, right, I mean it was it's a way
up there, a lot of miles, and I know that

(05:35):
sometimes you know, big rigs will end up with a
million miles on them at some point. But this is
a guy just in his personal vehicle driving all over
the world. But but it's not you know, it's not
uncommon or not unheard of for somebody to get three
hundred thousand miles out of a modern vehicle, and uh,
there there are ways to do that. I mean, this list,
we've got a list today that we're gonna follow. You.
We should just be right up front, right up front

(05:57):
with everybody about this is that this list is put
together by someone who is an expert in their field.
And I'll tell you who that is in just a moment.
But um, of course you're gonna be able to argue
with just about any one of these. I mean, I
think that listener, just by design, you can even argue
every single point in them one way or the other.
It seems like so, um, I understand that there will
be some some points of contention here and a couple

(06:19):
of them that will point out a few of them
will just go past, and you know, right in with
the comments, I'd love to hear what you have to
say either way. Like you know, Um, I agree, I
don't agree, but understand that this is somebody else's list
that we're following. So this is this guy's opinion, and uh,
I guess maybe ways that he has seen vehicles that
have lasted past the three mark and the guy that
wrote the list. Um it comes from an a site

(06:41):
called bottom Line, Inc. And it's just a group of
experts that have submitted articles. So the person that has
submitted this article for their Auto section is a guy
by the name of David Solomon. Now David is a
certified master auto mechanic out of I want to say
it's in Maryland. I'm gonna look that up right now
we're talking. But um he is also UM an editor,

(07:04):
and he also is the chairman of a place called
motor Watch, which is an automotive safety watchdog organization, and
the editor of the same motor Watch I got. I
don't know if it's a site or a magazine or what.
But again, he's out of Butler, Maryland, certified Master Auto mechanics.
So this is his opinion of how to make a
car stretch to miles and a few you know, the maintenance.

(07:25):
We're gonna go over driving techniques, fuel choices, routine maintenance,
just a few other helpful tips along the way. And
then he also includes the section that this is maybe
the biggest point of contention here is that he lists
when to change the oil when it changes the break
fluid all that specifically, but I don't think that you
can really do that. And well, we'll talk about you
can't list like one number for everybody doesn't work the

(07:48):
same for every single person. So when we get to that,
we'll cover it. But um, maybe we should just jump
right in, because he says, you know, it's clear that
you know a lot of people struggle to get to
a hundred thousand miles with the car because it's always
breaking down and it's always comes some kind of trouble.
But these are ways that he has seen vehicles stretch
beyond the three thousand mark, or at least up to

(08:09):
the three thousand mark. So the very first one is
under the category of driving technics, right, yeah, uh. And
the first one is to coast as much as possible,
plan your approach to red lights, stop signs, turns before
you reach them, don't accelerate unnecessarily, and step on the
break at the last moment because that wears down your brakes. Also,

(08:32):
you know you're pumping your engine. I sometimes you gotta accelerate, man, Well,
sometimes you do, I mean, but I think later he
mentions that you know, you save some of the heavy
acceleration for um, not emergency, but when you need it,
like you know, emerging and things like that. But um,
he's saying that, you know, when you when you get
your chance, you know, just take it easy. You don't

(08:53):
have to, you don't have to, you know, hurry up
and then stop, hurry up and stop. And a lot
of people are are guilty of that. In fact, I'm
guilty that sometimes it lights when I don't realize that
they're not time correctly, you know, and you have to
carry up to the next one, and just before you
get there, it turns red again. So um, I think
everybody has an example of this. Definitely, Uh, I definitely
have a problem coasting. Well, you know, it's some some

(09:16):
environments is just tough to coast. In the city environment
is a little more difficult to coast, and you're it
seems like you're either accelerating or breaking at all times,
you know. The I don't think there's much coasting at
all in in city driving. Um, when you're out on
the highway, you can do it. If you're kind of
back in the suburbs of the hills or you know, wherever,
it's a lot easier to do something like that. Um.
The next tip is to accelerate slowly. Okay, so the

(09:36):
same type of things. Some of these are related, but
avoid those jack rabbit starts. So don't pretend as if
it's a drag race every single time you leave the light. Um.
You know again, save that for um emergency situations. But
you know, flooring the gas pedal when the engine is
cold is also a main reason for blown head gas
because he points out, so, um again, just one tip

(09:56):
that he mentions here, And I've heard this so many
times drivers that thing, yeah, and I don't I don't
know if you could ever. I've actually tried to think
of this before. Like you accelerate is if you've got
an egg between your foot and the gas pedal. And
and that has always kind of puzzled me because it's
like any amount of pressure is gonna make that egg
crast it like a heart boiled egg if you have
some squish. It's not talking about like a like a

(10:19):
solid like a stone egg. You just mash that thing down.
You know, we should do We should take those figures
of speech, because I know they've been on your mind
a lot lately. Take those idioms and stuff and try
them out in real life. You know, let's get an
egg and put it and we'll go to your car
and we'll go and we'll go to Jonathan Strickland's car.

(10:44):
A car does not own a car. Yeah, well we'll
go to someone's car to be determined and put an
egg between a foot and the gas pedal and see
how that acceleration works. It's gonna be Ben's Okay. The
next one on the list is allow the engine to
get hot. It's something we just mentioned. And okay, a
couple of things. This isn't. This isn't letting a car

(11:05):
warm up at at idle when you first start up
in the morning. Yeah, this is running. So it's it's
helping to flush the contaminants like fuel and and moisture
and stuff like that away from the motor oil. I
don't know if I understand that exactly. You know, there
shouldn't really be a lot of contaminants and and moisture
within the oil. It would say almost none. Um, but uh.

(11:25):
It mentions that you should drive at highway speeds for
thirty minutes at least once a month. Now I do
I I completely agree with that. I mean, I think
you need to get on the highway and blow the
carbon out of the whole system. At some point, you
can't just kind of you know, poke around town and
expect your vehicle to be at top you know, operating condition.
If you're allowing all that stuff to just kind of
build build, build slowly, you're not really flushing everything out.

(11:47):
So it's good to get on the uh. You know,
even if it's once a month and you do it
only just for this purpose. You know, when you get
on that on ramp, really just just floor it, let
it have it, I mean, and you'll be surprised at
what comes out of the tailpipe exactly. Yeah. The next
item here, I think makes a good point, and I'll
say why. It's something that they don't mention here, but

(12:09):
it's delay heating or cooling to prevent adding extra load
on your engine. Let it run for a minute so
it's lubricated before you turn on, you know, the froster
a C. I'd like to uh, I'd like to join
this with the next point and in a combo deal
if I can. All right, The next point is run
the air conditioner windshield de froster at least once a

(12:29):
month for about a minute to circulate oil through the
heating cooling system. Otherwise, oil may settle in the compressor,
causing the system to stop operating. One thing that happens
with with the a C in some hotter environments, more
human environments like here is here in Atlanta, Georgia, where

(12:51):
we're based, is that oftentimes people will be running their
a C and because of the condensation drip, they'll get
like a mold in there. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, sure,
I do, Yeah, yeah, and uh okay. You know. All
you have to do to test this is go down
to Orlando, Florida and rent any car on the lot,
and you're gonna first thing you'll notice when you when

(13:12):
you open the door is a musty smell and that
blows out no quickly. But then you park the car
again and you come back and it's musty again. And
what causes that is that there's kind of like a
build up of debris on the evaporator coil that gets
you know, gets wet over and over again. It gets wet,
it dries, it gets wet, it drives, and when it
gets really hot and it's wet, it becomes this moldy
mess and it's deep inside the dashboard area. It's it's

(13:35):
something you can't easily excess and clean. Um you can,
you know, you can buy a spray to spray down
in there, but it just makes your car smell like
it smells kind of like a cheap hotel room or something.
It's that ozone stuff you can spray in there, and
then there's also some other stuff that they're supposed to
kind of you know, knock all that out and you know,
chemically clean it. But uh again, difficult fixes. They're not

(13:56):
real easy. But that's all you have to do is
just rent a car in Orlando already know exactly what
we're talking about, what happens here too. Yeah, but the
other points about letting your engine run before you turn
on the defroster air conditioner, I know, it's really tempting
every time you hop into a super hot car, you know,
and we've all been there, where you touch the steering
wheel for a second you go, oh, yeah, it's just

(14:19):
too hot. It's five hundred degrees or whatever it is.
Yet I'm sure accurate. I'm sure it is. Yeah, I'm
sure what exactly, No, but you're right, it is. It's
a it's a great temptation to just reach for the
A C button and push the you know, the max
A C button. I guess, um, what he's saying is,
maybe hold off on that for a bit until everything

(14:40):
kind of gets a chance to open up a bit
and and circulate. And that totally that makes perfect sense.
That also goes for the engine too, and we'll talk
about that you know later, But first let's talk about
using the parking break. Yes, now I agree with this
one whole hardly as well. Um, this is a simple thing. Really,
if you don't use your parking break, if you haven't

(15:00):
used it ever and it's spent years and years, don't
use that thing if you're away from your house, because
it may seize up on you. There's a chance or
it may not even operate. It might not work if
if it's already seized up. Um, if you use it
all the time, continue to use it all the time.
That's probably the best thing to do. Anyways. I mean,
if you, if you, um or someone who parks on

(15:21):
a hill, of course you want to use your parking
break and leave your car in gear. Um, if you
have a manual transmission. Um. There's a lot of little
tricks like this, but it's one of those things like
if you if you don't use it, it kind of
becomes um inoperable at some point because it corrodes or
at rusts or whatever. And you really do have to
keep that mechanical um operation free, free of of contaminants

(15:44):
or whatever rust or scale or whatever builds up on it.
Um even dirt and grime can make it not work.
But again, my advice is that if you don't you,
if you haven't used it many many years, don't attempt
to use it today for the first time when you're
you know, you're downtown parking or something. But use it
or lose it. Situation, Yeah, I think it is. Yeah,
So again, just h I almost always use my parking break,

(16:05):
you know, whether it was a handle that I would
pull up on the you know, the manual cars that
I've had, or even now I have an elect have
an electronic parking break. But it's just really all it's
really doing is removing the cable connection between the two
and just electronically applies the parking break. It's kind of
a fun thing to mess around with, but you can
hear it applying. It's it's it's neat, but um same

(16:25):
idea Anyways, it all ends up in a mechanical motion
that locks the locks the breaks the next one and
this is one that I would bet most people do
not do. Uh. This is allowing a turbocharge engine to
kind of wind down to allow to cool and the

(16:48):
ideas that you lay your car idle for a few
minutes after you've driven. You just let it sit. Well,
you know, the car is still running, but you're not driving,
you're in park, and allows the turbo to stop spinning,
but it's still it remains lubric aided with motor oil,
so you don't. Um, you don't allow it to just
like instantly shut off while it's still hot. And that's
the worst thing you can do for it. So, UM,

(17:09):
I have a turbo engine and I don't do this.
I don't allow my car to idle after I drive it.
But then again, I'm not like overly taxing the turbo either,
And I don't know if that really matters or not,
because the last I was thinking about this ben the
last um portion of my drive on either side, you know,
whether to the office or to home. And I think
this is probably a case for most people. You don't
exit the highway and then immediately parked your car typically

(17:31):
unless you're parking at a you know, um, a restaurant
or maybe a shopping mall or something. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
But when you're going to and from work, you know,
home and to work. Um, typically the last part of
your drive is a slow drive anyways, you know, either
through the neighborhood or you know, smaller side streets. So, um,
this one applies. But I don't know if you're if
you're already kind of easing into that that park mode.

(17:53):
I guess, um, maybe it's a little better for it,
but um, I definitely do not let it sit in
idle and cool down. What do you think about the
next one, the idea of avoiding two footed driving. Oh,
I think it's not a good idea anyways to drive
with both feet. Um, it seems it seems like there's
just too much room for air there. Uh. I've seen
people do it, and they can do it effectively, very effectively. Um,

(18:17):
some people swear by it. That's all they do. It's
two foot drive. So we're talking about cars that are
automatic transmission, I should say, um, where you have one
ft on the gas and one on the brake, right
foot on the gas left one. I mean, unless you're
in a weird situation. Uh. And the problem here that
the author points out is that it could lead to
unconscious slight riding of the brakes, you know, it wears

(18:38):
them out, the engine control gets confused, the engine control computer,
excuse me, gets confused. It could lead to stalling, surging.
It seems to me just kind of like a I
guess it's kind of a bad driving habit. Really, yeah,
I mean it is, And I understand that there's times
when it may be an attractive option to you, you know,
to drive with one ft over the break and one

(19:00):
on the gas. Um. Well, it's even in a song,
isn't it can't drive fifty five? I thought, well, I
thought you were. It did sound like a phrase that
thought you were gonna go from you know, one ft
on the brake, one ft in the grave, not quite
that far with it, not quite that far. But yeah,
I think, um, it seems like it's it maybe just
a poor driving habit. I guess that that's carried on

(19:22):
too long, you know, when you're when you're riding the brakes,
and um, it does cause excessive wear of the pads.
So um, maybe not a good idea to do it anyway.
It's just try to try to work on using just
one ft I refuse possible. Alright, So here's the next one.
And this is another one that I've heard so many
times from so many plays. I didn't really I don't

(19:42):
know who to believe on this one. Really, I have
a hard time picking out the truth in this one.
With a manual transmission, you should use the brakes and
not the gears to slow down. It's always cheaper to
replace the brakes than it is to replace any part
of your transmission, whether that's the clutch, the gears, you know, whatever,
the bushing is, any anything that does wear out as
you're as you're doing that. So instead of downshifting to

(20:03):
just stop or slower stop, um, you should use the
brakes instead. That's their suggestion. Now I am. When I
had a manual transmission, Carmen, I mean notorious downshifter, I
used to love to downshift, and I like the way
the engine sounds, I like the way it feels when
I do it. It was a very visceral thing for me.
I mean I really really liked it a lot. And

(20:24):
super producer Matt downshift Frederick Oh that's a good one
you remember too. Yeah, I like it. I like it,
but I can't I can't say that this is one
you shouldn't do because I really enjoyed doing that myself
in my cars. Maybe it's a type of car that
you have that you makes you wanted to do that.
We should also point out spoiler alert. Even in the

(20:44):
comments for this article, not a lot of people agree. Yeah,
a better way to say that many people disagree. Yeah,
the comments, if you want to go through some of
the comments, there's there's some people to go back and forth.
I don't know if the even go back and forth.
I think they just comment. The author I don't think
has really pipe back in there to to defend any
of the stuff. Yet. Let's uh, here's another one under

(21:06):
the category of fuel choices. What do you think of
the scott try to use a gas additive with every
fill up because modern gasoline doesn't contain enough detergent to
keep the fuel system clean. I at every filip. Yes,
there's some. Uh, there were for a long time, some

(21:28):
additives that may questionable claims, you know what I mean,
And we're kind of like snake oily. Uh, there's definitely
something to be said for many additives, but I don't know.
I just don't see myself putting one in every time
I fill up my tank, now, I don't. I don't
think many people do, unless it's maybe an octane booster

(21:50):
or something like that that they require. Um woy, that's
that's a tough one, and every fillip seems excessive. I mean,
I under and I do understand that, you know, the
modern systems can't necessarily deal with the high amounts of
ethanol that are in in a lot of the fuels now.
But it's not just that. I mean, um, well, I
guess you should avoid any additives he points out that

(22:12):
contain methanol, methyl methyl alcohol, xylene, tiling or act tone,
because those damage the system as well, I mean the
hoses and the pumps and all that. But um, yeah,
that's a tricky one. I mean I've heard, I have
heard that the seals wear out faster because of the
excessive amounts of ethanol, and um, maybe this, maybe this
combats that a little bit, all right. Um I'm not

(22:33):
sure if his his goal here, and maybe we'll find
out as we go through this list, but I'm not
sure if it's more of a we keep the fuel
injectors clean or you know what, what exactly that the
point is here. I think it's maybe just cleaning the
pump and the and the lines out for this for
this bullet point, Yeah, I see. Um. This one. The
next one I can personally vouch for, though, use the

(22:53):
octane called for in the vehicle owner's manual. You guys
know that. In the voice gout oath, I put a
lot of emphasis on thrifty, So I admit, man, I
was one of those people who in my early days driving,
even though I knew better, I should have known better,

(23:13):
and I'm I ignored it. I put I put the
cheap stuff into a vehicle that required premium for a while,
and it does make a difference. Yeah, sure does. Check
your owner's manual. I think that's probably also in the
in the door jam. There's a sticker on every vehicle,
every new vehicle anyways. But it is really really important

(23:36):
to use the fuel as the manufacturer suggests for your vehicle.
And here's another misconception is that if you have a
car that takes regular unletted fuel and you put in
premium fuel, Let's say you're gonna take a long trip
and you put in premium fuel, you know for that
first tankful that's really good for your car. Right, that's
that's that's not true. That's a that's a misconception. Stick
with the regular unletted if that's what your car takes,

(23:57):
if whatever octane rating it requires, and uh, you know,
whether it's p if it's premium, you've got to stick
to premium. Otherwise you're gonna have performance issues. You're gonna
have some noises, you're gonna have carbon build up. There's
gonna be all kinds of things that can happen. Um
combustion change, the carbon in the combustion chambers builds up
to a point, and it causes other issues that you
don't want later on because that all gets really really expensive.

(24:19):
So you don't get better mileage or anything like that
either out of the deal. So um, just stick with
whatever the recommended manufacturer octane is for your vehicle. And
that's the best thing to do. Uh. The other thing here,
and a lot of people don't pay attention to this one,
This one is important. I really believe in this one.
Don't let the fuel level drop below one quarter tank,
so a low tank promotes condensation which can also damage

(24:42):
the fuel pumper, which will damage the fuel pump. Um.
I've heard a couple of things about this as well,
now that they're I'm not sure one one aspect I know,
I know the conversation thing is is a fact that happens,
and it does damage the fuel pump because you're not
supposed to have water and your fuel at all. Um,
wait what anyways? So UM. The the other thing is that, um,

(25:06):
you know, over time, over a long time, you're gonna
get little bits of stuff that gets collected in your
fuel tank. You know, it falls in through the fuel
and fuel filler neck. Um, not a lot, but it
builds up over time. There's a there's a bunch of
it kind of floating around in there, but it all
tends to settle to the bottom of the tank. As
you get to the bottom of the tank, I think
there's a better chance that that stuff gets picked up. Now.
I know that they're filters in place that are supposed

(25:28):
to guard against that, but the filters can become clogged.
You know. If that's the case, if it's got a
smaller pool of gas to draw from, it's more condensed
into that one area, and it's going to clog the
filter easier than if you've got a full tank of
fuel and all that stuff is still settled to the bottom.
But um, again, that's a that's a minor, minor thing,
and I I have yet to really see physical evidence

(25:50):
of that anyway. No one's ever said, he look at this,
you know, here's the junk that builds up in a
fuel tank over five years or ten years or whatever.
I still haven't seen that. And I've heard of clogged filters,
of course, but I've never seen like a like a
decent cutaway that shows you exactly what what gets in there,
the kind of crap that floats around in your fuel tank.
And his last call for a fuel choices category is

(26:14):
another do not another thou shalt not do not fill
the tank to the top of the filler neck topping
off after the gas. Those clicks, you know, if you're
trying to get to your your point three five, if
you like increments of five or who would do that?
It's crazy? Or if you're or if you're what one

(26:34):
of the I like to call him, the double oh hunters. Okay, yeah, yeah,
it has to be an even number. Yeah. If he
gets to uh, I've done it before in the past
where it clicks and it's at seven cents, and I
think I can just push just a little and then

(26:55):
it goes oh one. Yeah, well, oh wait, it depends
on which gas station you're at. And that's that's an unrelated, well,
I guess, tangentially related question that I have for you,
ladies and gentlemen, Scott and I have for you. Do
you think that some gas stations are swindling you out
of an extra estimated you know, tenth of a cent

(27:18):
or a whole cent, because I don't know about you,
but at some gas stations, and this is completely unscientifically
proven by me, and this is only my perception. At
some gas stations, I swear, man, it flips right from
nine to point oh one. Yeah, man, that could happen,

(27:40):
but it seems to me, like, you know, it's tougher
thing to control when the price of fuel goes up.
I have cat like reflexes, Scott, cat like, yeah, but
let's say that. Okay, here's the difference. You remember back
in two thousand eight, when the fuel prices were like
four dollars and fifty cents everywhere, you know, the prices
to skyrocket, and they were constantly changed. And I know
that that's what the races a lot of places now,

(28:01):
but um, right now here in Georgia, it's rout to
something like that to fifty maybe, And it's a lot
easier to control that that that few cents that you
want to pump into either round off the numbers or
you know, get to the point five or the five
cents or whatever. But when the prices were up that high,
the amount that you were able to squeeze in with
just a touch of the trigger was far more like

(28:24):
it costs more than the three cents or the sixth
sense that you're trying to round up. That's a great point.
I mean, I think it just clicks off so fast
that you're just unable to control it. And I think
you can at a lower price at lower price point,
I should say, I think that's what's going on. But
you're there's always the chance, you know that they that
they I don't know whether they they faked the weights

(28:45):
and measures, uh sticker on the on the thing, because
isn't that all that's all checked out right right? I
mean I immediately went to accusing these people to swindle me. Well,
you know, those those silver stickers that they placed on
the pump that usually they cover the pump a cell
in the pump. You can't open the pump without breaking
that seal. And then oftentimes it's a type of sticker
that you know, they have to scratch their initials into

(29:06):
her signature with a seal, a raised seal, and they
measure for sure that you're getting, you know, one gallon
is is truly one gallon that comes out of the
pump or um. I don't know if they do the
calculation because that changes daily with what you're actually getting
versus the price. So you might be right, they may
be rounding up up a little bit, or it would

(29:28):
it be rounding down. I don't remember well either way, Yes, Scott,
you make you make several excellent points. Perhaps I should
not assume that, uh, my reflexes are infallible and that
big gas station conglomerates are out to out to rook
me for a penny. You know, I like that you
think that that's your initial reaction though, I like my

(29:49):
initial reaction, just a knee jerk reaction that they're taking you,
they're trying to get over. Oh, can I say one
more quick thing about this now you mentioned, you know,
don't top it off right, and the reason we didn't,
I don't think we talked about the reason. Um maybe
we did. Did we talked about the evaporative well, so

(30:09):
that the reason is that can damage the evaporative emissions
canister and that will cause a check engine light to
come on. And then you know, sometimes when the check
engine light comes on and they start replacing parts, you know,
it's not just a loose gas cap or whatever, that
can start to get expensive. And I think everybody kind
of understands where that's going now. I used to do
this all the time and some of the smaller, you know,

(30:30):
economy cars that I had, and it probably was back
before the days of some of the modern emission systems.
So I would, uh, I would, I would fill it up,
and I would get in, you know, until the pump stops,
and then I would like push on the bump or
the car to kind of rock the air bubbles out
of the tank and then put in as much feel

(30:51):
as I could. Now and I do that a couple
of times, as much as I could until it was
right to the very top. You could you could hear
the fuel as it came out like I knew that
the sound that would make they got closer to the
end of the nub and I don't I mean, I
don't they get damaged anything. There were no check engine
light situations happening back then. But again maybe that was
before you know, certain standards were in place and and

(31:12):
didn't really bother it. Alright, So we're moving on to
the next section already, routine maintenance. Routine maintenance. Ah, yes,
everybody talks about it, not all of us do it. Yeah,

(31:33):
And this is the one where he mentioned specific mileage
points and I don't know. I mean this again, is
there's so many variables here, So I understand that it's
not This isn't an exact science, I don't think. Okay,
So we can agree with the first statement. Determine the
normal life expectancy for major parts absolutely, with the idea

(31:55):
being that you can replace them before they fail. So
if you know, for instance, my brakes are gonna probably
go out around here, or I'll start getting that, you know,
the the old cats me out from down down there. Screech. Yeah,
the screech I beat a little too too kind when
they call it the cats me out. Yeah, when they

(32:16):
start when they start winding at you. Uh, that's the
built in warning. But well, there's also things like the
timing belt where you can go with the knowledge of others,
you can say that, you know, if you go to
one hundred thousand miles, it's going to break on you.
If you change it at a you're gonna be fine.
So you would be more apt to change it at
eight at that point. And there are a lot of

(32:37):
things like that on a vehicle that you know, previous
owners can tell you. You know, we have this maker
and make a model of vehicle, and you know this
particular generation of vehicle. UM, look for this problem at
a certain point, like it has a has a plastic
impeller that notoriously breaks down and degrades. Um, you know,
pull that thing out and put in a metal impeller.
You know that that will last, you know, to the

(33:00):
end of the vehicle whenever that is UM, that type
of stuff. You shouldn't ignore that. If somebody tells you
something that that's very helpful like that, you know, listen
to the recommendations. I guess. But um, this first one
is one that somebody in the comments actually had a
big problem with the first one. And here's an example.
It just you know, before they fail type thing. He says,

(33:20):
most people never think to replace the radiator, but a
radiator should be changed every ten years or one hundred
and fifty thousand miles or even sooner, depending on your
driving conditions. A lot of people just wait until the
radiator goes bad, until you know there's a hole in it,
or there's something that else it's you know, they're all
it's still plugged up, that it's just not operating correctly anymore. Um,
there's a lot of things that would cause you to maybe, uh,

(33:43):
replace a radiator, you say, and do it ahead of time. Well,
now also, nowadays, got a lot of people are owning
a car for long enough for it to be a
replacement part. It's a very good point. So it might
just be a situation where let's say somebody buys a
pretty decent used car and they've it's it had one

(34:06):
owner when it was new, somebody else bought it the
second owner when it was used, and now they're selling
it to the third owner and it's been nine years.
So the radiators coming up on a change, and now
it's just this unpleasant surprise. Well, There's also this other
factor that that that plays in here is that if
you're not the first owner, you don't know if they

(34:28):
were using just regular tap water to fill that thing,
you know, with U coolant and tap water, or if
they were using the proper distilled water. And you know,
you just don't have any idea of the previous treatment
to that vehicle. So these numbers are kind of arbitrary
to me in a way. I mean, you can kind
of you can kind of maybe ballpark some of this stuff,

(34:49):
and that's about it. But some of the comments, you know,
sections say things like I've never had to replace a
radiator in my whole life, and you know, I've I've
driven cars that lasted well over two and or fifty
thousand miles, but I maintain them so well, and I
used the proper fluids, and um, you know, it's really
not an issue for me. But that's just one person.
That's how they treat it, and they know how to
and and to do it correctly, so of course they're

(35:10):
gonna get the longest life out of all those all
those products. And of course I can't believe we didn't
say this disclaimer beforehand, especially as we get into some
of the stuff coming up later. Of course. Yes, ladies
and gentlemen, the thought experiment is true. How often should
you rotate your tires? Ideally, every time you drive, you

(35:34):
should replace all the consumables in your vehicle to get
it at peak performance every time you drive, every single
time race car rules. Right, Okay, you know that would
be the way to ensure the best performance and the
highest uh likelihood of everything working well together? Is that
every time Scott Benjamin comes home from work, boom, new tires,

(35:58):
all new fluids, all new fluids, boom. Uh. Let's see,
we'll also want to retune the engine, right, We'll also
want to uh well, additives, I guess, uh new battery,
new brake pads, all all that jazz, air filters, all
that stuff. And that's uh purely fantasy, of course. But

(36:22):
while we know that's true, we also know that there's
a great amount of controversy regarding the so called goldilocks zone,
like when's the ideal time to change it? I'm interested
to see what you think about this tire life. All right,
So I've been told and I'd recently purchased a new setentires,
not used, brand new, and it was right before our

(36:43):
road rally adventure, and the recommended tire rotation on those
is every five thousand miles. Now I have a a
an owner's manual that tells me that I get an
oil change every ten thousand miles, which I don't do.
I get it earlier than that, a little bit earlier,
as I have anyway since I've been in this vehicle. Um,
I just kind of chicken out and do it about
every seven instead of ten thousand, like the manual tells

(37:06):
me a little bit early. But that doesn't exactly work
in with the five thousand mile rotation of the tires either.
And it's not the simplest thing to pull in and
have somebody to do it, you know, on their you know,
tire warranty or whatever, gets a shop nearby my house.
But um, it still takes it a little while for
them to do it, maybe an hour to get it
in and then you know, twenty minutes to do it,
and another fifteen minutes to settle up, you know or whatever.

(37:27):
I guess it's free. I shouldn't say settle up, but
you know, to eventually get the keys handed back to you.
So it's like an hour and a half deal or
maybe even two hours to get it done. Shouldn't take
that long, but it does. And um, I find that
now I'm just rotating it, rotating my tires only at
oil changes, so around every sevents and getting rotated. That's
I know, a little bit longer than the manufacturer recommends

(37:48):
for the rotation. But you know, it works better into
my schedule, I guess, And it's kind of like getting
it all done at one time. It seems to be
working out. Okay. The wearer seems reasonable. Um, most people,
I mean, I I would say the majority of people
don't even think about rotator tires. It's something that's mentioned
to them when they go to the quick oil change place.

(38:09):
But I think a lot of people don't really say
go ahead and do it. I think that that's a
lower percentage than you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna
even qualify this even more. I would say that the
listening audience right now, the people that are listening to
us talk, they probably rotate their tires more often than
people that don't listen to a show like this, because
you know that I think that, I mean, it's just

(38:30):
a guess. I'm saying that you know you have an
interest in this kind of thing, and you know you
probably tend to care for your vehicle. Oh boy, I'm
trying to. I'm probably paint myself in new corner and
say everybody here. And it's not a broad brushing, but statistically,
way more people are going to be aware of changing
their oil than change rotating their tires. And it's the

(38:54):
same with, for instance, a battery, Like a lot of
people will just ride their tires till one of them pops. Unfortunately,
surely not you listeners, uh, but many of your friends
and family members, and you'll find out, like here's how
you find that out. You know that the front tires
are far more worn out than the back tires. If
you've got a front wheel drive car, you can't pass

(39:16):
the penny tests. Yeah exactly, but the back tires look
like they're brand new. You know that kind of situation.
I've been guilty of that situation before, to where you
just don't consider it even for long, you know, too long,
and then it's too late. And I think there's even
more apparent in the case of car batteries. Oh yeah,
that's probably true. Yeah that you know, battery maintenance is

(39:37):
something a lot of people completely ignore and uh, well
they're not ignoring it. They're just waiting till the battery dies.
That's the thing. And you know, the battery. Battery will
give you a few signs here and there that you
know it's struggling. You know, you'll see dimmed lights or
when you press a uh you know there's a few. Okay,
there's a few. Yeah, Like we know the science right right,
like if you crank the A C or the heater

(39:59):
for a set it and you might see the light step. Yeah,
and you know, some of the stuff will fully a
little bit because there's some alternator issues also that we're
playing at this, so okay, there's a there's a tangle
of you know, if this then that type of situations,
but we're talking about batteries. Will stick to that. And
one way that you can test if your battery is
going bad if you if you have a feeling that
your battery is going bad or or maybe um, you know,

(40:21):
if if you've noticed your underhood under the hood poking
around doing something change in the air filter whatever oil
even and you notice that, you know, the little stickers
on on your battery that you can peel off to
show indicate the date and the month in the year
that you bought your battery. Use them. Yeah, yeah, exactly,
because they those things are far more accurate than you
would think they It seems like, um, I've had batteries

(40:42):
fail exactly when they said they were going to fail.
If it's a sixty month battery, it fails right at
sixty months, or you know, four year battery, whatever, it's
exactly at that point. So they know what they're doing
with these. And one way that you can kind of
predict the end of your battery life is if you
go to it a shop that can test it, that
has something called a conduct DNS tester. Now that's that's

(41:02):
probably the best way to determine if your battery is
in fact, uh, kind of near the end of its life.
They can predict when it's going to fail. UM with
the conductance testing. UM, I don't know if we want
to go too deep into you know exactly what this does,
but UM, it checks the it indicates the battery state
of health. I guess it'll tell it'll tell you how
well it's it's conducting current, it's allowing current to flow

(41:26):
through it. So UM, we can probably just leave it
at that that you know, it's the best predictor of
an an end of a battery's life if you want
to just have like a bench test for it. Yeah,
it is. Additionally, the author recommends replacing whatever conventional battery
you would have with an absorbent glass match or a
GM battery. So take out the lead acid battery, put

(41:50):
in this absorbent glass MATT battery, and I guess the
comparison would be like an LED versus an incandescent light bulb.
But it's gonna last longer. Uh, it's recharging faster. They
It's got a couple of different advantages. One of the
big ones is that since they're sealed, there's a much
lower chance of them venting some kind of gas or

(42:14):
causing corrosion to cables. That's a big one, right there.
So many problems are caused by those corroded cables. So, um, yeah,
if they if you're not going to corrode those cables
and and deal, you know, you don't have to deal
with all that mess, then might be worth it. I
think there are a few extra dollars. They're a little
bit more than a lead s a battery, but not
a whole lot. I mean the example battery that they

(42:34):
mentioned here a couple of different brands. I won't mention them,
but um, prices start at one and thirty dollars. That's
pretty low, really, I mean that's about what you'd pay
for a standard lead as a battery anyway. So um,
if that's the price point, it's not too bad. I
know it does go up from there, so just so
look into that. But um, all right, here's another thing
about the battery. If you can open up the battery,

(42:55):
you can top off the electrolite fluid and you have
to Okay, is this tricky? You can use stilled water
for this, but there's also, uh, you know, a bottled
material you can buy off the shelf that is battery liquid.
I guess that you're supposed to use for the specific purpose.
So um, you know, look into it before you do
either one. But if you have to, you can use
distilled water to top off the electro line. So there

(43:19):
we go again. Scott Whin should Whinch just will clean
the throttle body and fuel injectors. Okay it says every
thirty thousand miles, so this must be different than the
fuel additive that we're talking about before that must have
just been to keep the pump lubricated, the lines clear
and stuff like that. This is specifically to clean the
throttle body and the fuel injectors. And I totally agree
with this one. I think this is a good idea

(43:41):
that you know, if you haven't in a while, you know,
maybe at the if the oil change when they say,
like we're having a manager special today, you can clean
the fuel injectors with this additive. Um. You know, it's
something that just pour in the gas tank. Um, sometimes
they'll actually tear it apart and uh, you know, use
a spray on the on those surfaces and that's a
little bit more, um, a little bit more complicated. It's
not that hard. You can do it at home if

(44:03):
you know what you're doing. But um, this is something
we're talking about just pouring in the gas tank and
then taking a drive. So what's the harm in that.
Maybe it's a few dollars um, and it keeps your
fuel injectors clean. I'd say it's worth it. What's it?
What's your opinion on it? You think that's that's a
good idea? Well, yeah, I mean yes, I don't think
it's a bad idea. I guess I'm wondering he's really

(44:24):
plugging additives here. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not always you know,
one for pouring a bunch of extra um, you know,
liquids into your vehicle, like the guess to the fuel tank. Um.
I do that as a few times as I have
to pour you know, these additives in whatever it is.
No no octane booster or anything like that. Don't need that,
but you need the cleaners. I'm a little bit cautious

(44:46):
about it. I like to I like to research it
and make sure that it's something that I need to do.
And again, it's not every time like he's saying. This
one in specific is every thirty thousand, which I think
is reasonably. Not all additives are created equally. But to
your point, I do completely agree with the idea that
it's not expensive. It's you know, a prior planning situation

(45:08):
prevents catastrophes, right. And I feel the same way about
the spark plug maintenance, which he pegs at every sixty
thousand miles, Placing wires, if it matters, every hundred thousand,
two hundred and twenty thousand miles. I think replacing spark
plugs I don't think it's that bad. Also, it gives

(45:28):
you a chance to do some possible diagnostic, you know,
some cool forensic diagnostic on your car. You get to
read the spark plugs, right, yeah, yeah. I think everybody
who has a is it a Children's or Haynes or
both of those. You know, the manuals that you can
buy off the shelf at your part store. A lot
of times the back page is dedicated to reading spark plugs.
You know what that what that means? And they have

(45:50):
the cool color diagram that you can look it up
and try to forge out what's going on. And um,
I don't know, at sixty thousand miles, does that seem
early or does that seem late? I don't, I don't know.
I mean, it's seems like a lot of them say that.
You know, these spark plugs are guaranteed for one hundred
thousand miles or the owners manual say a hundred thousand miles. Now, um,
that might be a little bit early. Uh um. But

(46:13):
then again, back when I started driving, it was it
was recommended every twenty five thousand miles. I think replace
spark plugs. It's got to be just new engines in
the way that it burned a little cleaner. Maybe, I
don't know. There's got to be some kind of explanation
for this. But you were replacing you know, wires and
plugs a lot more frequently back then than you are now.
Either way, that is absolutely true. But that was also

(46:37):
back when you could, uh fix more of your car
on your own. These newer models, man, that's true, These
newer models with those black boxes under the trunk electronics stuff.
Yeah right, uh here here's something that was small that
I want to hear your opinion about listeners because I
did not know. I don't know how much this next

(46:57):
one can. Well these are these are just helpful tips.
So we're into we were past that. Now we're into
just a few, maybe three or four helpful tips. Sure, okay,
keep only a few keys on the ignition key ring,
the idea being that the extra weight from a fistful
of keys will wear out the ignition switch prematurely in
some vehicles. Oh how heavy here these people's key ring.

(47:20):
You know what I gotta tell you, I think I
think I believe this one. I I think I'd buy
into this because I've seen people with these enormous lot
of keys. It's like a baseball, you know, or they
have all kinds of crap hanging from them that's heavy,
you know, like whether it's lighter can open or a um,
you know, bottle opener, I mean, or something like that.
You know, it's heavy with it. Yeah, it's it's a
lot of snow globe or whatever is on the end

(47:42):
of that stupid key ring. Um, if it's heavy, it
does cause the key to be pulled in kind of
an odd angle. And I've I've felt cars before that
the key is loosen the ignition, you know what I'm
talking about, Like it doesn't feel like it locks in there,
Like it's like it's it's all sloppy in there, like
it's gonna pop out while you're driving or something. Um,
And I guess maybe that's it. I just always thought

(48:03):
it was like where over the years, you know, like
it was an old car. After fifteen years, it just
becomes that way. I didn't really you know, credit this
to having like too many keys on the ring or anything.
I'm not one to keep a lot of stuff on
my keychain at all, just the one to show this. Yeah,
I I have very few keys on my key reing.
But it's because I really don't like touching jangly things

(48:27):
like keys or jewelry out why But but I've always
kept it very, very simple. I have, however, seen people
who were carrying a key ring that would no, no,
lie man, with all the stuff on it, be like
a foot and a half long yea, with like a
lanyard attached to it, and then and then buttons on
the lanyard and stuff clipped to that at the end

(48:48):
of rings clipped the keyring. Yeah, yeah, exactly that a
lot of people have that stuff. And I don't even
have a key ring. I have just the key fob.
That's another thing. And what's that, just the key fob,
just the the smart key push ignition. Yeah, that changes it.
I mean I think that I think we'll see this

(49:08):
point about fewer keys on your ignition or fewer keys
on your key ring. Um, I think we'll see it
become increasingly irrelevant because of the way that they're designing
the keys now. And also you know, of course the
cars that you don't even have to put the keys
in the innitition at all, just keep in your pocket,
you know, it just has to be on your person
in order to make the vehicle work. So, um, yeah,

(49:30):
you're probably right. I bet this this problem will kind
of slowly phase itself out. Really, um, if it isn't
indeed a problem, I don't even know nothing scientific to
prove this. Also, I'm just gonna laundry list these. Next one,
that's okay. Of course, using a car cover obviously, if
you don't put your car in a garage, you want

(49:50):
to put your car under something, right, regardless of the
environment you live in, some kind of shade. Just a
car cover doesn't cost very much. Pretty inexpensive really, the
windshield shade or dashboard cover. Yeah, those are those are great.
Should have one. I'm laughing because I lost mine recently
and I want to get it back, Like you know,

(50:12):
I used to the expandable ones. Oh yeah, where you
uh it's like the plastic flexible material that's got kind
of a foil on one side. Yeah, there's kind of
like a wrist flip trick that you have to do
to fold it up to make it a little compact circle.
Those are those are my favorite, purely because of that
trick of that wrist flip trick. I kind of like

(50:34):
the novelty ones sometimes, not not always, but sometimes the
ones that UM depict something on the front that looks
almost like you're looking into the vehicle and seeing some
crazy scene or something, or maybe an advertisement for like, uh,
I think I've seen one that's you know, like a
better Call Saul advertisement with some kind of crazy you know,
saying some kind of funny thing should get into that
business man maybe maybe. Alright, so, uh, the other one here, Oh,

(50:59):
this when to change fluids? Yeah, this is the big one,
all right, So we should probably go through these kind
of quick. I don't I don't think we should spend
too much time with this because I guess my my
overall opinion of this is that, um, you should really
just go with the recommended manufacturers recommended service intervals for
all this stuff, you know, whether you know, whatever the
fluid is, whatever the change interval is, Um, it should

(51:21):
be dictated by the manufacturer. And if not that I
mean you can cheat it one way or the other.
I guess a little bit. You know, better to err
on the side of caution, you know, and change the
fluid early rather than late, of course, but UM to
to put down an exact number for everybody here, I
don't think that's uh, that's something that maybe should be
done because somebody will look at this and decide that's

(51:41):
that's okay, and then maybe that's not okay for their
specific driving conditions. But but there's some good tips in
here too. Yeah, there's a great tip. Okay, this is
something that this is something that I wish more people
knew about. You can have your oil analyzed with a
test kit that will tell you whether you change the
oil often enough for you're kind of driving. And this

(52:04):
is after his recommendation that you change it every three
thousand miles. So that's kind of like the well, as
we say, the big oil U situation, you know, where
they want you to change every three thousand, but the
manufacturer will say seventy five or ten thousand. Right, But
but you're right. Not many people know about this service,
and and I've never used one myself. I've known they're
out there, but I've never done it. I haven't done

(52:24):
it yet either, but I'm gonna I'm gonna take a
crack at it. I'm probably going to do it with
one of my family's cars in particular, because I wanna
case test, you know what I mean. So I want
to do it with a couple of cars. But the
oil analyzers, folks, are not a group that's designed to
sell you oil changes, you know what I mean. So

(52:46):
it's a it's a good source for that kind of
information without knowing someone as skin in the game and
it comes to, you know, selling oil changes or something.
It's just the information about your specific driving habits and
what what they can learn about your habits from the
oil that you sent them, Yeah, exactly. And the idea
is that you know, it's it's kind of like a

(53:09):
blood test for a human. You know, you take a
sample of blood and you send it off to the
lab and they tell you the results. It's not it's
not like they've got any kind of any kind of
agenda really, um. So that's a great thing. And just
for an example, they can find like trace amounts of
coolant that are in there, so they can indicate that,
you know, you've got a seal issue. Um you know,
maybe you're maybe your head guess gets about ready to go,
or maybe they could find sand or something in that

(53:30):
that um or um, I don't know, anything could be
bits of metal, you know, and tell you that there's
were happening somewhere, but it's still too fine for you
to see or feel. Uh. So there's all kinds of
things that can turn up in these uh in these tests,
it can function as an early warning system, you know,
kind of uh canary in the cave. Also break fluid. Yeah,

(53:54):
a lot of people neglect that break fluid and just
let it go for you know whatever, a hundred thousand
miles or whatever. It's go crazy. It's it's recommended or
he recommends anyways that every two years or twenty four
thousand miles UM, a vehicle with an anty locked breaking
system should be changed, um every three years or thirty
six thousand miles. For those that don't have a BS now,

(54:15):
I don't know, there's not a lot of vehicles right
now that don't have a b S. There's a few
out there still, I guess older vehicles of course. Um.
And then he recommends a specific type of brake fluid
that you need to use, a synthetic brake fluid with
of course, corrosion inhibitors things like that. So UM, A
lot of this is just you know, I guess this
is the best thing to do for your vehicle. This
will help you achieve that three miles. Power steering fluid

(54:38):
he recommends every two years or twenty four thousand miles.
Long life radiator coolant every three years or thirty six
thousand miles, And that seems about right to me, I
can I can understand that. And again the recommendation to
use distilled water not tap water because of those mineral deposits.
Because man, if you ever have you ever um used
power washer before, like um, in one season, let's say,
in the fall, use it and then you go to

(54:59):
get out in the spring, and that nozzle at the
end is completely just frozen almost ye, so you got
to soak the I've had. This happened to me just
this year. I had to soak it in CLR before
I could even use it. And I thought I had
done a good job of flushing everything out of there
and keeping it clean, but apparently not. So that kind
of thing happens inside your radiator where you can't see it,
and it's not good. Um. The next one here is

(55:22):
transmission fluid for automatic transmission, so he recommends every three
years or thirty six thousand miles in front wheel drive vehicles,
or five years and fifty thousand miles for rear wheel
drive vehicles. Of course, synthetic transmission fluid will extend that
interval by one year or ten thousand miles either way,
So front or rear rear real drive. Um, that's not
a bad recommendation right there either. And I think that's

(55:44):
maybe ahead of what the manufacturer would suggest for manual
by way of comparison, Uh, Solomon states it should be
every sixty thousand miles or one hundred thousand if you're
using synthetic fluid. Now see, I'm trying to think back
to what my recommended service in the fool is from
my car with an automatic, and I think it's somewhere
around eighty thousand for the Volkswagen and uh boy, I

(56:08):
don't know if that's synthetic or not. But anyways, it's uh,
this varies by manufacturers my point, and again it's broad brush. Yeah.
And also the era of your your vehicle, you know,
whether it comes from the nineteen sixties or whether it
comes from you know, the two thousand's. UM. So all this,
all those matters, it really doesn't matter. Fuel filters, at
least every fifty thousand miles, partially by our fuel filter

(56:29):
can cause premature failure or the fuel pump. Of course, Um,
you should use the same brand of fuel filter that
the factory supplied. That's always recommended. If you can use
the factory recommended to switch out. Um, that seems like
a long time for me. Yeah, fifty thousand miles older
older cars. I was used to changing those. It seems
like every I don't know, Ben, it seems like every

(56:50):
couple of weeks I was put a new fuel filter.
And I don't know if every red light. I don't
know what the deal was, but I was changing the
fuel filter and awful lot on some of those older cars.
But that kind of rounds out this list. And so yeah,
the assumption there is that if you do all of
these things for your car, that you will greatly increase

(57:11):
your odds uh getting it to three thousand miles and beyond. However,
doesn't say these are guaranteed things. And honestly, a lot
of stuff on here doesn't apply across the board, and
it's not it's it's not stuff that a lot of

(57:31):
people do. Like driving techniques are so ingrained after a
certain point, you know what I mean, Like like me
and my downshifting right, no offense, But yes, if I
if I had another manual transmission car, I probably would
downshift it, knowing even knowing that I should probably be
using the brakes instead of the gears to slow down,
and uh, you know whatever. Maybe let's say that you

(57:51):
I don't know if you're you're joking about it, but
two ft you know, two ft driving and an automatic car, um,
if you really do that, it's a tough habit to stop.
I understand that, But I also been I was thinking
about this, listen. I was thinking, how much of this
comes down to kind of you know, a lot of
cases come down to luck. You know that you you
just happened to notice something one day and uh and
then you know, you correct it, But that could have

(58:13):
been a big problem had you let it go another week,
you know, or another day. Just I've had many times
where something like that's happened for I've just noticed something
by accident, I was looking at something else, and I think, like,
I better just take care of that now, And then
you realize that just how bad the situation was or
could have been, you know, had it had it been neglected.
It was a bummer for me for a while, since

(58:33):
I drive through a lot of construction zones and I
live in the city, right. I went through a period
of about three weeks where I had I found a
nail or, screw and attire every week. Oh my gosh.
And uh, you know, none of them were like blowouts

(58:54):
or anything. I was able to get them all plugged.
But it's pretty fortunate and not just ridiculous, Yeah, to
not have that end up in a blowout or a
puncture side wall or some Two of them were screws. Yeah,
all three were on the tread. Uh. You know, we
did the little you know, the wind X trick. Yeah, yeah,
to figure out uh, to figure out this stuff. You

(59:16):
didn't just spit on there. What you use windex. You
didn't just spit on there like a little spit on
your finger and put on Man, don't look at me
like I'm crazy. A lot of people do, a lot
of people do that. We're so okay, silpy water, how
about silpy water? But wind X works to fine. I'm
sure soex is what I had just spit on that
all right? Also, um, I was also thinking about this too.

(59:38):
I mean, how much build quality plays into this. Now.
A lot of people used to think, you know, a
car built on a Monday is no good. You want
a car that's built in the middle of the week,
or you know, there were there are so many um
theories about you know, how the quality of the vehicle
coming out of the factory was altered by the day
of the week that the car was built. And whether
it was something to that, I don't know. I mean,
I'm sure it played in du you know, so um,

(01:00:00):
some vehicle at some point. Um. But also like you
gotta think of that things like this too, Like I
would assume, I would assume that BMW engine is gonna
be put together a little bit tighter, a little bit
better than maybe, say, um, what brand am I gonna
pick on? Here? Um, no one's gonna like me when
I pick whatever branded? How about you go? I can
pick on a Ugo right the build quality, the build

(01:00:23):
quality of a BMW engine is gonna be slightly higher
than the build quality of a Hugo engine right from
the factory. So there's that two factor in as well.
What can you expect to get out of that engine?
You know, the the is there, you know, three thousand
just there's just no way, I mean, is is it
a hundred thousand? There's just no way. That's the fact.
That's the that's the fact with a lot of these um.
And also again I come back to luck again. But

(01:00:46):
you could do all of the stuff that's on this list.
You could be you know, maintaining your vehicle for that
first hundred and fifty thousand miles and then some you know,
hero and a Honda Civic comes by and smashes into it,
and then it's all over. Right, someone on the highway
trying to make trying to race, trying to do you know,
whatever it is. It's a Mustang, whatever it is, they
plow right into you, and uh, and it's all for nothing.

(01:01:07):
So you've got to start over again. You know. Would
your car have lasted three thousand miles maybe, but you
never know, You'll never know pass the point where it ends. Um.
That's that's kind of a frustrating part of this whole
thing too, is that you can do everything you can
you possibly can to make it last that three hundred
thousand or even more if you want. UM, but there's
always gonna be that off chance that something's gonna happen,

(01:01:28):
Like we've had wildfires in the area recently, uh, in
the in the southeast here and lots of them, and
a lot of people lost a lot of eagles and
they're parked in a garage or whatever it imagine is
something like that wiped out a you know, a car collection,
or even just kind of that that prize baby that
you had in the garage all the time. You know
that you've been keeping since, you know, for fifty years,
and you've got two hundred and ten thousand miles on it.

(01:01:50):
You're hoping to get to three hundred thousand or whatever
for forever, you know, drive the rest of your life.
Um that kind of stuff just happens. So you've got
to kind of deal with that too. Um Man, what
a down room trying to be. I'm not trying to
end on a down it's I mean, it's it's a
good point. And it's also it's also true that, of course,
you know, cars are more than just a financial investment.

(01:02:15):
I don't know anyone who's owned a car for more
than five years and not felt it had some sort
of value other than just money, you know what I mean.
We get attached to these things. And also, of course
you want, even from a purely financial perspective, you want
the best from your investment. You know, and you you

(01:02:38):
want something that you know, like the back of your hand.
Like my favorite examples are always people who have a
beat up old manual with a tricky transmission, you know,
and maybe even a gear you just have to pop past,
and they're like, all right, well look first, third, fourth,

(01:03:02):
or fifth or five, watch out for number two. Just
got a gun it right, And those those sorts of things,
while well, you know, disadvantages or imperfections, after a time
they kind of become endearing, you know. And the goal is,
of course, to make your car last as long as

(01:03:23):
you could, maybe even to give it to, you know,
your kid in the future. That's always the hope is
that you know, you make this purchase, it's probably this
what sometimes it's the second largest purchase beyond a home
usually for for most people. And so it's it's something
that you've got not only money invested in, but you've
also got a lot of time invested in at this point.
You know, if you get to a high mileage high

(01:03:44):
mileage vehicle, of course you've got a lot of time
in it. Unless you're that guy that got three thousand
out of his vehicle and what in his truck and
what six years, was it. That's not a whole lot
of time for that much mileage. But apparently he was
doing something right with the with the maintenance. Um. But yeah,
you've got you've got more than just more than just
money invested in it. You've got you like you said,

(01:04:05):
it's it's like a part of the family at some point.
So especially one of these these you know it's in
the three thousand ballpark. Um, that's something that probably gonna
pass on to somebody else in the family before you
would get rid of it. If not, just give it
to them, you know, just say like here, you know,
just change the oil every three thousand miles, you'll be fine,
or whatever you say, is you to hand the keys over?
But um, anyways, I would love to hear what our

(01:04:27):
listeners have to say about this list. It's been a
long time going through it. It's not very long list, really,
but there's so much to talk about. I feel like
we're still glossing over a lot of stuff. But um,
I would love to hear, you know, some of the
people that agree with or disagree with some of these things.
And I know that you know, there's gonna be people
on either side of this, so so let us have it.
I'd like to hear what you have to say. Yeah, right,

(01:04:48):
and let us know if you have any tips for
helping your car make it to three K plus or
if you have a beef with some of the tips
that are author here has outlined in his article and
just you know, in the comments of this, and people
had some beef about gas additives I think in particular
and octane arguments, and I think the fluid changes, you know,

(01:05:11):
the intervals that were recommended, and uh, it's there's again,
there's a lot to argue with. There's always there, always
will be with a list like this, So we understand, Um,
we're not gonna be offended by any comments or anything
like that. Scott will be tremendously offended when someone when
someone bad mouths, so you go, no, no, no, don't

(01:05:32):
let's not uh let's say I'm a UGO defender in
any way. Sorry, Oh I felt into a villain laugh there.
All right. Well, if I'm if I'm waxing megalomaniacle and
getting Scott in trouble, that usually means it's time for
us to head out for the week. We would like
to hear from you in the meantime find us on
Facebook and Twitter. We are Car Stuff HSW let us know.

(01:05:57):
Oh wait before we forget nicknames. Oh yeah, nicknames. You
had one downshift right? Yeah? Oh man, um Matt Max
Miles Frederick sounds like a hyper Miler name. Yeah, it does, does,
maxim Miles hyper Miler Maximum likely to be his full name,

(01:06:18):
Max Miles Comma hyper Miles. Gotcha? Okay, man, how about
our listeners? Maybe can suggest a couple? Yeah, if you
have a If you have a good idea for nickname
for superproducer Matt Frederick, let us know. Extra points if
it is a pun of some sort. If it's not
fit the print, we might not read it, but that
would probably make us chuckle. I will read it, just

(01:06:40):
not on air. We'll read it just not on air.
That's a much better way to say it. You can
check out our You can check out our previous audio
episodes touching on similar topics by visiting our website Car
Stuff Show dot com. And as always, our best suggestions
come from listeners like you, not a general you, you specifically,

(01:07:01):
so let us know what we should cover in future
episodes and what your fellow audience members would like to hear.
You can write to us directly. We are car stuff
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(01:07:22):
email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. M